BAY CITY, MI — Bay City officials are exploring a move to control the city's outdoor cat population that involves partnering with the Humane Society of Bay County and local veterinarians to spay and neuter cats and then release them back into the city.

Trap, neuter and release — or TNR — is a program utilized in many communities across the country that involves non-lethal baited traps, taking the cats to a partnering veterinarian for spaying and neutering and vaccinating them against rabies, and then releasing them back into their place of origin.

"There's a lot written on this program and it has been successful in other communities," said Bay City Manager Rick Finn.

Jeannie Wolicki-Nichols, president of the Humane Society of Bay CountyYfat Yossifor

Jeannie Wolicki-Nichols, president of the Humane Society of Bay County, calls TNR the most humane way of dealing with cats that roam around city neighborhoods.

"Cats are territorial and have this vacuum effect," she said. "If I take out 10 cats, there will be 10 more moving in. Unless we sterilize them, neuter them, we'll be trapping and killing forever. There's still a lot of work to be done on this, but it's a positive step forward."

The biggest hurdle in implementing the program will be funding. Wolicki-Nichols said the Humane Society has applied for a $15,000 grant that would focus the TNR program in the city's South End, but that's it for now.

"The rationale is that if we put all of our efforts into that one area right now, we can show some results that could help move a city-wide program forward," Wolicki-Nichols said.

The city doesn't have a funding mechanism for such a program and will look toward community members — not the taxpayers — to foot the bill.

Bay City Manager Rick Finn

"We're looking at the community and their fundraising efforts on this," Finn said. "The city doesn't have extra money right now."

"It always comes down to who's going to pay for it," said Commissioner Jim Irving, 5th Ward. "People want to do a lot of things, but there's never any money for it."

While the TNR program would help deal with feral cats and what Wolicki-Nichols calls "community cats" — felines that don't have owners, but may have had one previously — it won't impact the number of indoor cats owned by a resident.

Earlier this month, Bay City officials delivered a reading of an ordinance that would cap the number of cats in a household at three. The ordinance received staunch opposition from local residents who filled Bay City Hall at the meeting. The City Commission referred the ordinance back to staff, asking for a better solution.

A cat sits outside a home on Van Buren in Bay City on Friday, March 29, 2013. (Rachel Sonnenshine | MLive.com)

Finn said capping a number of cats in a household is likely off the table at this point.

"We're not going to be knocking on doors if we think a house has five or six cats — that was never the case," Finn said. "We're interested in dealing with the issue (of outdoor cats) and how we can attack the issue in a different way."

The benefit of trap, neuter and release is obvious to organizations like the Humane Society because it allows local shelters to cut down on euthanizing unwanted cats.

Finn was manager in Peekskille, N.Y., when the city implemented a TNR program. A local animal rights leader helped coordinate efforts with the city, local veterinarians and volunteers to run the program, and it was a success, he said.

"We started to see a decrease in the population in year two," Finn said, adding the city funded about $5,000 per year into the program. "It has proven itself, so now we have to see if it could work in Bay City."

Critics say the program has negative effects.

Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2009 wrote a letter to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which at the time was considering a trap, neuter and release program, speaking out against the program.

"The service strongly opposes domestic or feral cats being allowed to roam freely within the U.S. due to the adverse impacts of these non-native predators on federally listed threatened and endangered species, migratory birds and other vulnerable native wildlife," the letter reads.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — or PETA — also opposes TNR, saying it puts cats in danger without human ownership.

"Critics will say (TNR) contributes to killing birds, but so do the chemicals we put on our lawns," said Wolicki-Nichols. "There are more positives than negatives."

Joseph Soehnel, a local bird watching expert from Essexville, said Bay City's cat population doesn't interrupt his hobby.

"I do know that cats kill millions of birds across the U.S., but for us, you're not going to see a cat at Tobico Marsh or the state park where the bird watchers will go," he said, adding he owns a cat that he rescued off the Rail Trail.

Finn says the TNR program is one idea to controlling the cat population, but not the only idea.

"There are plenty of ideas out there," he said. "We're hoping to bring a recommendation back to the commission that is truly community-driven."